Carter

Carter arrived on October 21st and boy were we happy he did! He weighed 8 lbs. and was 21 3/4 inches long...a big boy for being 10 days early! We're thrilled to have a new addition to our family!

It all started on Tuesday, October 20th. I had gone shopping at the mall with a few friends and our kids earlier on that day. By the time I made it out of there I was completely exhausted and thankfully, Lincoln was too. When we got home we both crashed for almost 3 straight hours. I woke up at 4:30 and got cleaned up so that we could run to Target for a few things. I felt a little nauseous, but continued on my way, thinking that it was tiredness, and hunger that were bugging me. By the time I got to the Target parking lot I knew that I was more than tired or hungry. I rushed over to my parents house since it was close and so that they could help me with Lincoln until Derek was off of work. I barely made it there in time to run in the house and throw up. Ugh! I had the flu. But, because I was throwing up I began to have major contractions that were really close together. I decided that it would be hard to tell if I was actually in labor or if it was just the throwing up that was causing the contractions so I called Derek to come and pick me up and take me to the hospital just to be safe. After he picked me up we ran home so I could shower and grab my bag, and then we headed over to the hospital. When I walked in they made me grab a mask...gross! Who wants to breathe into a mask after they've been throwing up?! Then they had me get into a gown and a bed so they could monitor my contractions. Sure enough, they were 2-5 minutes apart, but I was only at a 3+! After an hour they checked again and I had still made no progress so they decided to send me home. I was disappointed because my contractions were painful and close together and I was still really sick so I didn't know how I was going to know to go back to the hospital! We got home around 11 that night, but I wasn't able to go to sleep. I was in and out of the bath, and moaning and groaning all night! Poor Derek and Lincoln!

Derek gave me a blessing around 2:30 am (I'm so grateful for the priesthood) and I was finally able to crash at 7 am. Lincoln was up around 8 so I got up and tried to make it as normal of a morning as possible. By this time I had stopped throwing up, but I was still really weak. My contractions were worse, but were spread out to about 10 minutes apart. As the day progressed my contractions were getting harder and more painful, but still wouldn't come consistantly or close enough together, and there was no way I was going to the hospital again until it was the real thing! Carli came to help with Lincoln that afternoon when she got done with school and then decided to take him to the highschool football game so that I could get some rest. My Dr. called me that afternoon as well and told me to take Tylenol and come in first thing the next morning to get checked. I didn't know how I would possibly make it through another night! When Derek got home we ate dinner (that my sweet cousin Heidi made for us) and decided to play a little Mario Kart to get my mind off of it. We started around 6:30 which is exactly when my contractions started to come 5 minutes apart. After driving off the Mario Kart track several times I decided to quit and focus on getting through the contractions. We called my brother to come and help give me another blessing so that I could somehow get comfortable enough to rest. By the time he was ready to leave our house I knew it was time to get to the hospital! I took a shower and got my bag and got in the car as fast as I possibly could...which isn't very fast when you're dying every 2 minutes! I told Derek he had about 5 minutes to get me to the hospital or else I really would die. On the way there I called my Dad, who was out of town, and Derek's Dad to let them know I was on my way to have the baby. I knew this was it.

When we arrived at the hospital the nurses took one good look at my make-up smeared face and knew I was in total agony. They grabbed me a wheelchair, rushed me to a room, got me in a gown and threw me in a bed. One of the nursed told me she knew I'd have the baby that night. I really didn't believe her because it was a 17 hour process with Linc. Anyway, I asked for an epidural right away but they insisted that I get an IV and get one bag of fluid in me before they'd even call the anesthesiologist. GRR! So, while I waited in pain, I had Derek working like mad to keep me comfortable. He got me warm blankets every so often to put on my hand where the IV was and he pushed my legs as hard as he could up to my stomach whenever I contracted. When the fluid was about empty the nurse called for my epidural. There were 3 woman ahead of me! I barely survived. The anesthesiologist finally came when I was at a 7! The epidural was slow to work and actually never fully worked on my left side, but it was enough to take the edge off. My Mom had been helping settle Linc down at home witht the twins and made it to the hospital around ten. She looked like an angel as she came in the room. There's nothing like having your Mom there when you're about ready to give birth! She took over Derek's job and let him relax for a bit.

Finally at about 10:45pm they broke my water. The Dr checked me and I was at a 9 so he quickly got everything ready and I was pushing by 11:25pm. The epidural makes me sick (but I'd rather be sick then in pain) so I pushed once and then felt like I was going to throw up. I knew I had no strength to push again so they sat me up and gave me a bowl on my next contraction. As I threw up, out shot little Carter...that easy!

He was perfect from the start! I love how warm babies are at first, and my favorite thing was to hold Carter to my chest and gaze into his beautiful eyes. What a sweet moment. We love our little Carter Bug!